Y2K Stress Drives Man to Suicide

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Cory Hamasaki hinted at the hightened stress level of many programmers recently. No problem for Hoffmeister and Chicken BIG though.

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Y2K Stress Drives Man to Suicide

Friday, July 9, 1999; 1:35 p.m. EDT

TOKYO (AP) -- Stress from dealing with the Y2K computer problem drove a 40-year-old man to commit suicide last year, his wife reportedly said in a petition for compensation filed Friday.

The man routinely put in 15-hour days at the Osaka steel sales company, where he was in charge of computer software, Kyodo news agency quoted his wife as saying in the petition.

Businesses and governments around the globe have been forced to fix computers that may break down because they only read the last two digits of dates and will mistake the year 2000 for 1900.

Yoshihito Yoshikawa, an official at the government's Labor Standards Direction Bureau, confirmed that the bureau received the petition, but refused to disclose its contents.

According to Kyodo, the petition said the man, whose name was withheld, was ordered to ensure that more than 600 pieces of software would be free of the millennium bug.

The work did not go well, and he would come home late complaining to his wife, ``I want to die,'' Kyodo said. He jumped to his death from their apartment building in February 1998.

``Because he was forced to do excessive work ... causing psychological problems, he committed suicide,'' the wife said in the petition, according to Kyodo.

If the Labor Standards Direction Board approves her petition, she will be eligible to receive compensation worth two-thirds of her husband's salary, Yoshikawa said.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), July 09, 1999

Answers

The article was posted/discussed in an earlier thread Ray. But in keeping with the theme, I just received this...

The true high point of the e-mail year has arrived. Yes, it is the 1999 Darwin Awards. For those sheltered few of you who are not fully aware of the Darwin Awards. These awards are given annually (and posthumously) to those individuals who did the most for the human gene pool by removing themselves from it.

DARWIN AWARD RUNNERS-UP:

#1 - LOS ANGELES. Ani Saduki, 33, and his brother decided to remove a bees' nest from a shed on their property with the aid of a pineapple. A pineapple is an illegal firecracker which is the explosive equivalent of one-half stick of dynamite. They ignited the fuse and retreated to watch from inside their home, behind a window some 10 feet away from the hive/shed. The concussion of the explosion shattered the window inwards, seriously lacerating Ani. Deciding Mr. Saduki needed stitches, the brothers headed out to go to a nearby hospital. While walking towards their car, Ani was stung three times by the surviving bees. Unbeknownst to either brother, Ani was allergic to bee venom, and died of suffocation en-route to the hospital.

#2 - Derrick L. Richards, 28, was charged in April in Minneapolis with third-degree murder in the death of his beloved cousin, Kenneth E. Richards. According to police, Derrick suggested a game of Russian roulette and put a semiautomatic pistol (instead of the more traditional revolver) to Ken's head and fired.

#3 - PHILLIPSBURG, NJ. An unidentified 29-year-old male choked to death on a sequined pastie he had orally removed from an exotic dancer at a local establishment. "I didn't think he was going to eat it," the dancer identified only as "Ginger" said, adding "He was really drunk."

#5 - MOSCOW, Russia - A drunk security man asked a colleague at the Moscow bank they were guarding to stab his bulletproof vest to see if it would protect him against a knife attack. It didn't, and the 25-year-old guard died of a heart wound. (It's good to see the Russians getting into the spirit of the Darwin Awards.)

#6 - In FRANCE, Jacques LeFevrier left nothing to chance when he decided to commit suicide. He stood at the top of a tall cliff and tied a noose around his neck. He tied the other end of the rope to a large rock. He drank some poison and set fire to his clothes. He even tried to shoot himself at the last moment. He jumped and fired the pistol. The bullet missed him completely and cut through the rope above him. Free of the threat of hanging, he plunged into the sea. The sudden dunking extinguished the flames and made him vomit the poison. He was dragged out of the water by a kind fisherman and was taken to a hospital, where he died of hypothermia.

#7 - RENTON, WASHINGTON, USA. A Renton, Washington man tried to commit a robbery. This was probably his first attempt, as suggested by the fact that he had no previous record of violent crime, and by his terminally stupid choices as listed below: 1. The target was H&J Leather & Firearms...a gun shop. 2. The shop was full of customers, in a state where a substantial portion of the adult population is licensed to carry concealed handguns in public places. 3. To enter the shop, he had to step around a marked Police patrol car parked at the front door. 4. An officer in uniform was standing next to the counter, having coffee before reporting to duty. Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced a holdup and fired a few wild shots. The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire, removing him from the gene pool. Several other customers also drew their guns, but didn't fire. No one else was hurt.

AND THE 1999 DARWIN AWARD WINNER IS.....

THOMPSON, MANITOBA, CANADA. Telephone relay company night watchman Edward Baker, 31, was killed early Christmas morning by excessive microwave radiation exposure. He was apparently attempting to keep warm next to a telecommunications feed-horn. Baker had been suspended on a safety violation once last year, according to Northern Manitoba Signal Relay spokesperson Tanya Cooke. She noted that Baker's earlier infraction was for defeating a safety shut-off switch and entering a restricted maintenance catwalk in order to stand in front of the microwave dish. He had told coworkers that it was the only way he could stay warm during his twelve-hour shift at the station where winter temperatures often dip to forty below zero. Microwaves can heat water molecules within human tissue in the same way that they heat food in microwave ovens.

For his Christmas shift, Baker reportedly brought a twelve pack of beer and a plastic lawn chair, which he positioned directly in line with the strongest microwave beam. Baker had not been told about a tenfold boost in microwave power planned that night to handle the anticipated increase in holiday long-distance calling traffic. Baker's body was discovered by the daytime watchman, John Burns,who was greeted by an odor he mistook for a Christmas roast he thought Baker must have prepared as a surprise. Burns also reported to NMSR company officials that Baker's unfinished beers had exploded.



-- CD (not@here.com), July 09, 1999.


Now if you idiot doomers would follow this man's lead.

-- Y2K Pro (2@641.com), July 09, 1999.

Y2K Pro,

Why do you like to talk to "idiot doomers"?

-- doomdoom (doomers@is.us), July 09, 1999.


"a". that new "Polly Off" pesticide that you sprayed on the CIA thread sure worked great over there. I'm gona spray some over here in hopes that we can get rid of these disgusting nats.

Pfssst, Pfssst, Pfssst.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), July 09, 1999.


Say "a", I think your "Polly Off" spray worked !!

Let's get a patent on that stuff ASAP.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), July 09, 1999.



Pollies and gene pools aside - anybody else notice that one suicide that happened over a year ago due to JOB STRESS in a foreign country is getting front page attention in this country?

And they (yes - Drudge included) are doing it solely because of the y2K impact == indicating (why ?) or directly implying (in other news reports - not just in these words - that "doomer's" are increasing the stress levels. In fact though - the stress was imposed on a hard worker who was put in an impossible position because of his boss's stupidity and bad management!

So - how will they spin the probable failures next year? On Clinton-Gore, the administration and its managers, or on those who are preparing now?

-- Robert A Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), July 09, 1999.


Here ya go CD - from the "I love you THIS much" file:

Internet romance ends with chain saw suicide

July 7, 1999 Web posted at: 7:33 PM EDT (2333 GMT)

TOPSHAM, Maine (AP) -- A Missouri man who came to Maine to pursue a relationship with a woman he had met over the Internet died after cutting his neck with a chain saw on her front lawn to prove his love.

"The distraught individual had met the individual lady on the Internet, started up a romance," Police Chief Paul J. Lessard said.

But the woman apparently wanted to end the relationship, so Dinardi drove up to her home, pulled a chain saw from the trunk and cut part of his neck off to show her how much he cared for her, Lessard said.

-- a (a@a.a), July 09, 1999.


-- Robert A Cook commented:

"So - how will they spin the probable failures next year? On Clinton-Gore, the administration and its managers, or on those who are preparing now? "

Robert, you can bet your bottom dollar that this has been and will be the topic of grave concern to those in power today. They will use any and all means available to deflect the blame to anything that will benefit their image and denegrate their perceived enemy.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), July 09, 1999.


I feel cheated "a". That guy most definitely shouldda made the list!

-- CD (not@here.com), July 09, 1999.

Robert:

I haven't personally seen any articles that "blame" this suicide on doomers or anyone else. I DO know, however, that 1998 was a big year for suicides in Japan. For this reason, I find it hard to believe that the widow will receive compensation.

There were I believe 58 suicides in a particular forest, as reported in many news articles, one of which is Fox News Report

The chief director of Japan's Central Bank Chief Director of Central Bank

My last example includes Cyan ide purchased on the internet

I'm no expert on Japanese culture, but it seems that throughout the years many reports have come out, documentaries produced, indicating that the Japanese in general tend to put themselves under more stress than their American counterparts. They tend to set higher standards for themselves and if they fail to meet these standards, they consider it a great sense of shame.

It may no longer be true, but I've seen documentaries of Japanese businessmen being expected to work long hours at the office and then entertain clients each evening at bars. Many of these folks simply died from heart attacks, and I won't include links to those because they're another issue entirely. Young adults would take tests to gain entrance to educational institutions and if their results were low, they felt they'd shamed their families and would resort to suicide as well.

-- Anita (spoonera@msn.com), July 10, 1999.



Sorry...must be time for bed. The second link on the Chief Director links to the first one and the Cyanide link links to the Chief Director. Let me try this again:

Suicides in forest

Bank Director

In ternet Cyanide

Hope this works better.

-- Anita (spoonera@msn.com), July 10, 1999.


#6 - In FRANCE, Jacques LeFevrier left nothing to chance when he decided to commit suicide. He stood at the top of a tall cliff and tied a noose around his neck. He tied the other end of the rope to a large rock. He drank some poison and set fire to his clothes. He even tried to shoot himself at the last moment. He jumped and fired the pistol. The bullet missed him completely and cut through the rope above him. Free of the threat of hanging, he plunged into the sea. The sudden dunking extinguished the flames and made him vomit the poison. He was dragged out of the water by a kind fisherman and was taken to a hospital, where he died of hypothermia.

That story is apocryphal.

http://www.darwinawards.com/legends1999-03.html

-- Lane Core Jr. (elcore@sgi.net), July 10, 1999.


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